Literally meaning “Chinese characters”, kanji are ideographic or logographic characters used in Japan, mostly borrowed directly from Chinese. Kanji include some characters created in Japan from originally Chinese elements, and other characters that were modified over time into distinctly Japanese forms. Contrast with 仮名(kana), uniquely Japanese phonetic characters derived either from cursive forms of kanji (平仮名(hiragana)) or from specific parts of kanji (片仮名(katakana)).